Chapter Seven
“Through here,” I show Darcy into the stables, flicking my eyes to where Cal is yelling orders to his workers, even though he hasn’t taken his eyes off me.
My fingers curl into my palm, tight enough that I feel all my veins pop out.
Darcy’s brows twitch, her gray eyes landing on me as she tucks a dark strand of hair behind her ear, “What’s gotten into you?
” She glances at my fist, and I have to force myself to relax, hiding my cards behind a mask.
I’ve known the woman a long time, pushed her away just as long, but it isn’t hard to see she has tried for more with me.
But I swore off relationships a long time ago. Got burned and won’t revisit the subject.
“Nothing,” I grunt, “Dottie’s in the examination stall. Second one on the left.”
Her eyes narrow, but she shakes her head, knowing when to push me—which is never—and heads down to the filly, her large case in tow. She places it down on the ground and steps a little closer to get a better look at the Appaloosa.
“She’s a pretty girl,” she muses.
I nod in agreement. With age, she’ll be even more stunning, with her black and white coat, the dots forming across her hind as well as around her neck. She has long socks on each leg and a deep black mane and tail.
Heading into the stall, I run my hand down each side of Dottie’s face, soothing her so Darcy can come in to examine her.
“Take it easy,” I warn the doc, “She’s reactive.”
Darcy nods, raking her eyes over the horse. “She’s young.”
“Calvin gave an age of approximately two years and three months.”
Darcy looks skeptical but doesn’t say anything, coming into the stall slowly as she whispers words of encouragement to the horse. Dottie watches her intensely, but she does well, allowing the vet to touch her and move around her, giving her a basic once over before she joins me at her head.
“I want to check her teeth,” Darcy says.
I keep Dottie as calm as she’ll allow me as Darcy pulls back her lips to get a look at the filly’s teeth, but she’s only there a few seconds before she snaps up straight and pins me with her wide eyes.
“How old did you say she was again?”
“Just over two years.”
“No.” Darcy clucks her tongue. “This horse is nowhere near two.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s barely a year old, Silas.”
I feel the blood rush to my head. “What?”
“She still has all her baby teeth,” Darcy swallows. “There’s no evidence of new teeth coming through. This filly is still a baby, Silas. She shouldn’t even be here.”
My head snaps around to the door where Cal is heading in.
With everything I have seen, everything I have heard, I’ve had enough.
I storm toward him, unable to stop myself, even when Darcy calls my name, attempting to stop me.
He opens his mouth to say something, but he never has a chance to utter a single word as my fist meets his face, snapping his head back before he lands on his back.
I’m straddling him in the next second, rearing my hand back to deliver another blow.
It’s not just the horse fueling this anger; it’s how he treats people.
How he treats her. It’s everything I have witnessed funneling into a fury so hot and violent, it has my heart roaring in my ears and my blood turning to fire in my veins.
“Silas!” A raspy voice screams, not Darcy…
My eyes snap up to Juni, her wide eyes on us, my fist raised to deliver another punch to this fucker’s face.
He fucking disgusts me.
“Get the fuck off me!” Cal booms, jerking up his hips to dislodge me. I allow it, falling onto my ass at the side of him as he scrambles to his feet, wiping at the blood flowing out of his nose. It’s not enough blood in my opinion; I want his face streaming with it.
It’s the very least he deserves.
My knuckles throb, the skin split and weeping a trickle of blood down my fingers.
“What the fuck, Knight!?” he growls.
I get to my feet and square up to him. “I am going to end you.” I grind out, “Tear this place apart piece by piece and watch you fucking burn with it, you fucking piece of shit.”
“What the fuck!?”
“She’s barely a year old!” I boom, “That’s abuse, you prick!”
His eyes widen in realization.
“I am going to fucking destroy you.” I vow, voice dropping low, the promise dropping the temperature around us by a few degrees.
A long pause settles between us, several sets of eyes on us now, an audience forming drawn by the commotion.
“You’re fired.” Cal spits.
“You think that’ll stop me?” I laugh, “The best thing you can do now, Cal, is hide.”
“Get the fuck off my property, Knight.”
“Fucking gladly,” I snap back.
I don’t need to be here to take him down. I have enough evidence, enough information to have this place closed within the month, and even if I didn’t have it, my word is enough to have this place crawling with agents from the state.
“Darcy,” I bark, “Head back to Knight Falls and ready me a stable. Dottie is coming home with me.”
“Like fuck she is,” Cal comes at me.
I react on pure adrenaline and have him pinned to the wall in the next breath. My forearm presses against his throat, not quite cutting off his air supply, but the pressure is enough to show him I can.
“You going to stop me, Cal?” I whisper, low enough only he can hear me.
“You think I won’t bury you? I will. How and when is up to you.
You either let me take that fucking horse now and buy yourself some time, or your body ends up in the mountains somewhere, food for whatever animal deems you worthy. ”
“Are you threatening to kill me?” He tries to keep that hard, stoic nature, but I see his fear, can fucking smell it.
“I’m not threatening, Cal. I’m promising. Make your choice.”
“Fucking take her,” he snaps, “I’m not paying you shit though.”
I press in a bit harder, cutting off his air supply for just a moment before I let him go, and he hits the ground on his knees.
Darcy’s already gone. I can see the dust cloud left behind by her truck, so I head to Dottie and unhook her, the ropes still applied, making it easy to guide her to the trailer Darcy left me.
It’s a new test for me and the horse, but she trusts me more than anyone else here and goes into the trailer without a fight.
“Silas?” The sweet, feminine voice steals my attention, and I pause where I’m getting Dottie settled.
“Leave him, Juni,” I rasp thickly, “Save yourself.”
“It’s not that easy,” she looks down at her boots, “Did you mean it?”
“What?”
“That you’re going to take him down.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes.” I vow. “Come with me.”
She looks to the stables, “I can’t.”
“You can.” With Dottie settled, I leave the trailer and close the door. “You can, Juni.”
“No, I can’t,” she squeezes her eyes closed. “I’ll be okay though; I always am.”
I shake my head, “You deserve more.”
“Perhaps,” she shrugs, “or perhaps not. We will never know.”
“Juni.” I reach for her but drop my hand when she steps away.
“It was really good to meet you, Silas.” Her brown eyes glaze over, “You gave me something I didn’t think existed anymore.”
“What?” I frown.
“Kindness.”
She turns and walks away from me, back into the stables, to him.
There’s a war inside of me, one that tells me to chase after her and another to get the fuck away from here.
I can’t force her away from him; we are nothing to each other but strangers. A buzz forms in my ears as I walk around my truck and climb in behind the wheel.
The whole thing feels wrong.
I’ll get her out next. When I take down Cal, I’ll save her.
Starting the engine, I pull away from the stables, only stopping once to grab all my shit from the cabin.
I never unpacked, so it’s easy to get everything together and thrown into the back of the truck, and then I’m driving away from Scott Ranch, away from that fucking prick and away from her.
It’s only when I’m on the road, heading back to Sunstone Ridge and Knight Falls Ranch that it explodes out of me.
My palm thumps against the steering wheel enough times for pain to bloom in my hand and up my arm.
“Fuck!” I roar, gripping it so hard it feels like the skin over my knuckles may split more than they already have.
What kind of man am I?